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Model Railroads of Southern California’s twenty-seventh layout tour takes place Thursday through Monday, October 6-10. This will be a self-guided tour of seventeen layouts in San Luis Obispo and northern Santa Barbara Counties. Two layouts are appearing for the first time on the group’s tour program. The layout tour is an official event of the Central Coast Railroad Festival ( www.ccrrf.com ).
This is a free event and you may bring relatives and friends.
By scale there will be seven HO scale layouts, two N scale layouts, one S scale layout, two O scale layouts and five garden railroads. Two of the layouts are narrow gauge (Sn3 & On30). The details for this tour are available below. If you wish to receive a map of the tour area, please e-mail me at the address below.
Persons taking this tour assume all risks and liability for their personal safety. Although I am the Moderator of this group, I am not responsible for personal loss or injury to those taking this tour.
Be sure to check the group’s website the day before the tour to see if any changes to the schedule or layout lineup have occurred.
If you cannot make this tour, more tours are scheduled including a Ventura-Santa Barbara tour on November 19. A Victorville-Apple Valley tour is being planned for February 2012.
If you wish to open your home layout for an upcoming tour, please contact me off list at:
Oceano Depot Association (HO) Saturday 11:00 to 3:00 Sunday 10:00 to 4:00 1650 Front Street (Highway 1), Oceano
Elden Paling (G) Sunday 12:00 to 4:00 pm 3430 Colima Road, Atascadero
Jeff Parker/Central Valley Model Works (HO) Saturday & Sunday 8:00 to 6:00 1203 Pike Lane, Oceano
Dennis Pearson (On30) Friday 12:00 to 6:00 (Olde Port Inn) 3993 Avila Beach Drive, Avila Beach
San Luis Obispo Model RR Assn. (HO, N & G) Sunday 10:00 am to 4:00 pm 1650 Front Street (Highway 1), Oceano
Santa Maria Valley Ry Hist. Museum (HO) Friday 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm Saturday & Sunday 12:00 to 4:00 Santa Maria Mall 142 Town Center East, Santa Maria
NOTES:
Please observe individual days & hours of operation for the layouts. No smoking at any of the layouts. Information current as of 9-15-11.
Andrew Merriam – No children under the age of eight, please. Darrell Nash – Look for GC&P RR direction signs. Layout has a duck-under. Elden Paling – Cars may park in the backyard. Jeff Parker/Central Valley Model Works – Brief tours of the Central Valley Model Works facility will be given as time permits. Dennis Pearson - Layout located at the Olde Port Inn in Avila Beach at the end of the Harford Pier at Port San Luis Harbor. Parking on the pier is available but limited.
LAYOUT DESCRIPTIONS-
Wayne Asbury – This garden railroad is a freelanced layout in a folded dog bone shape. It currently has two levels built up on a block wall to make operations and maintenance easier. Wayne runs all Bachmann steam power with battery power and QSI sound on LGB track. The railroad’s setting is Colorado and Southern/D & RGW in the mountains.
Central Coast Trains – This well-stocked model train store has three finished in-store display layouts in HO, N and O scale. Website: http://www.centralcoasttrains.com/
Doc Burnstein's Ice Cream Lab – This is the best site on the tour to enjoy ice cream while watching trains, with hand-crafted ice creams made on-site. The G-scale train travels the perimeter of the shop on a continuous loop, passing through two rooms and outside the building. The layout includes bridges, suspended track, and mountain scenery. Running since 1981, the Village Railroad includes an engine that replicates a train that traveled through Arroyo Grande in 1883-1896. Website: www.docburnsteins.com/
Paul Deis – The Los Osos Valley Railroad is Paul’s HO scale 400 sq. foot double deck, point to point layout. It represents the Southern Pacific Coast Line from San Luis Obispo to San Miguel in 1949. The layout is designed for operations and features hand-laid track, NCE DCC, sound equipped locomotives. Both ends of the layout have off-layout staging areas. The D&P Mountain Railroad is Paul’s freelanced Fn3 (1:20.3 scale) garden railroad. This is a U-shaped design around 3 1/2 sides of house. The mainline is planned for 600 feet. The first phase of construction is complete with a 350 foot mainline and 150 feet of sidings and industry spurs. The maximum grade is four percent with10-foot minimum diameter curves. Entire railroad is raised off the ground. The D&P Mountain Railroad is based on Colorado mountain railroading with mining and lumber operations in the 1940s era. This is narrow gauge steam railroading in a heavily forested layout. Over 120 dwarf Alberta Spruce trees planted so far along with other dwarf vegetation. There is a seventy-foot real stream with waterfalls ending in log pond for saw mill. The emphasis is on short line operations with the provision for continuous running. Six 2-person crews will eventually handle operations. The current layout supports two 2-person crews. Locomotives are battery powered with radio control, QSI sound decoders and Airwire throttles. Staging is planned in a 10 ft. x 10 ft. storage building.
Andrew Merriam – This layout is a loop-to-loop design on two levels in a three car garage. There are staging yards at both ends of the layout. Typical freights can be up to 30 cars in length operating out of the four main yards.
The prototype modeled is the Southern Pacific, circa 1950s. The locale modeled is the California Central Coast centered on San Luis Obispo. Trains start at Santa Margarita and run to Guadalupe and then by extension to the Port of Los Angeles at San Pedro. Central Coast features include the Stenner Creek trestle and horseshoe curve, covering forty linear feet of sceniced area, the San Luis Obispo yard and depot, Guadalupe yard and depot, an urban scene and the Port of San Pedro including a fifty- inch long ship and wharf area. Operations consist of through freights (lumber, merchandise and military) and passenger trains including the Daylight, Coast Mail and the Lark, plus locals. The Cuesta Grade uses helpers as necessary.
Most structures are kitbashed or scratch based on Central Coast prototypes. The layout features a national-level first prize for an operating replica of the double track Pacific Electric/Southern Pacific bascule bridge at San Pedro. All locomotives are DCC controlled with sound. No children under the age of eight, please.
Darrell Nash – The Gold Rock, Columbia and Palisades is a free lanced Sn3 Narrow Gauge layout with an emphasis on D&RGW and Rio Grande Southern. The GC&P reflects Colorado mountain railroading with a logging branch. The layout is 32 ft. x 18 ft. with approximately 150 feet of main line, staging yards, operating yards and many scratch-built items. Control is DCC with sound effects. Darrell is an excellent narrow gauge modeler and has drawn praise from some of the top narrow gauge modelers in the hobby.
Oceano Depot Association – The Oceano Depot Association mission is to restore, preserve, and operate the former Southern Pacific Oceano Depot and other structures that have historical significance for historical, scientific, educational and recreational purposes for the benefit of the residents of and visitors to the Community of Oceano. The Association’s public displays include a small HO layout. www.oceanodepot.org
Elden Paling – The Colima & Silla Railroad is a 3,300 square-foot garden railroad with over 1,200 feet of track. The double-track mainline is laid out in a figure eight pattern with sidings for the towns. The track is laid on concrete within lawn and landscaped areas.
Jeff Parker/Central Valley Model Works – This layout was built by the late Jack Parker, owner of Central Valley Model Works. It is now operated by his son, Jeff. It represents the Northern Pacific in Montana in the era from the early 1940s to the early 1960s. The often photographed scenes depict Logan, Montana. While considerable "artistic license" has been taken with the actual arrangement of Logan, the layout allows the simulation of the actual operation of Northern Pacific trains going to and from St. Paul and Tacoma. The layout room is a generous 17’ x 50’ plus an extra eight-foot extension on the east end for return loops. The track is, of course, Central Valley CVT. That product was designed and developed for and then used on this layout. Jack’s good friend and fellow N.P. model railroader David Coster helped design the layout and also did all of the wiring. The layout features a great roster of detailed brass steam locomotives and these all are tuned and weighted to pull scale length trains. Brief tours of the Central Valley Model Works facility will be given as time permits.
Dennis Pearson – Dennis’ portable On30 Pacific Coast Railway layout will be set-up at the Olde Port Inn in Avila Beach at the end of the Harford Pier at Port San Luis Harbor. Parking on the pier is available but limited. This is a highly detailed circa 1936 layout which depicting various historic scenes from the Pacific Coast Railway that once operated between Port San Luis, San Luis Obispo and points as far south as Los Olivos. Photo Link: http://ccrrf.com/091008.html
San Luis Obispo Model Railroad Association – Members are actively engaged in multiple modeling scales, including HO, N, O, On30, and G. Members working in other scales are also represented, and almost every scale may be found at their events & runs. Members have collaborated to build a modular layout in N scale, and they now have an operational HO modular layout as well. Website: www.slomra.org
Santa Maria Valley Railway Historical Museum – This non-profit, educational museum is dedicated to the preservation of the railroad heritage of California, the Central Coast, and the Santa Maria Valley. The Museum is building a large model (HO) railroad depicting railroad operations history in the Santa Maria Valley. The Museum has a space in the Santa Maria Town Center Mall, located on the second floor, a few doors north from the main escalators as you head toward Sears. A docent is available for information as you enjoy the various displays. There is a small gift shop in the Museum. Often, modelers are present working on the HO layout of the Santa Maria Valley Railroad. Website: www.smvrhm.org/
-------------------- Bob Chaparro Owner-Moderator Model Railroads of Southern Calif. Posts: 154 | From: Hemet, CA | Registered: Feb 2005
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